Jannes: Not for your average young reader of Pullman, I would imagine, but Milton is a great read if you want to get to the stuff that inspired His Dark Materials.
It's not as difficult a read as you would imagine, either, if you just give yourself some time to adjust to the style.… (more)

Basically, the universe is layer upon layer of parallel universes. Lyra can read the Golden Compass which is a highly effective means of answering life's most difficult questions. She goes on Adventures. Will has found the Subtle Knife, which slices apart the universes and allows you travel between them, they go on Adventures together. Dr. Mary -Something- has the Amber Spyglass which allows you to see Dust, which is Dark Matter, which is everywhere, attracts evil spectors and flows between the universes. The entire series is dark, as you have the Church of something or other lording over, evil research facilities, and generally bad people. The heroes are young, but the story only shies away from sex, really, and that only directly. Allusions to various dark deeds are not hidden. Good. Really Good. ( )

The Golden Compass should not be marketed towards younger children but teens and adults. The movie sure did gloss everything over into a pretty package. The book is not like that and the concepts in the book were sometimes hard for me to grasp. Lyra is not likable like other young heroines. At times, she seems wise beyond her years and other times, she seems like a spoiled brat. Some may say she's spirited and brave, both great qualities, but she lacked a certain tact. Still a good book.

The Subtle Knife. Holy cow, this was dark. In TGC, you could almost define the good and evil sides, but in this book, things get flopped around and the sides don't seem as defined. The worlds are coming together as well as all the different beings that inhabit them and who will side with whom? War is coming and there's already been numerous deaths.

The Amber Spyglass. The violence is getting worse and the parent-child relationship between Lyra and her biological parents is nothing to admire. It's hard to see which is the better parent, but in all likelihood, it's Lord Asriel. I've just begun, so my opinion may change.

Well, I've just completed the last book and ... WOW. Epic battles, betrayals, sacrifices and redemption. I'm glad I got a chance to read these books. It certainly feels like I've been around the world(s) and back with these children. The imagination that went into these books was remarkable. I admire writers who can create worlds so different from our own. There were a few things that I did not like about the book, but I'm not going to give anything away. All in all, the story was clever and interesting. ( )

Into this wild abyss,The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,But all these in their pregnant causes mixedConfusedly, and which thus must ever fight,Unless the almighty maker them ordainHis dark materials to create more worlds,Into this wild abyss the wary fiendStood on the brink of hell and looked a while,Pondering his voyage...

--John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II

For The Amber Spyglass:

The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations;The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up;The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk & dry'dReviving shake, inspiring move, breathing, awakening,Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds & bars are burst,Let the slave grinding at the mill run out into the field,Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air;Let the inchained soul, shut up in darkness and in sighing,Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years,Rise and look out; his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open;And let his wife and children return from the oppressor's scourge.They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream,Singing: "The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning,And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night;For Empire is no more, and now the Lion & Wolf shall cease."

--from "America: A Prophecy" by William Blake

O stars,isn't it from you that the lover's desire for the faceof his beloved arises? Doesn't his secret insightinto her pure features come from the pure constellations?

--from "The Third Elegy" by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell

Fine vapors escape from whatever is doing the living.The night is cold and delicate and full of angelsPounding down the living. The factories are all lit up,The chime goes unheard.We are together at last, though far apart.

--from "The Ecclesiast" by John Ashbery

Dedication

First words

Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen. (Northern lights)

Will tugged at his mother's hand and said, "Come on, come on..." (The subtle knife)

In a valley shaded with rhododendrons, close to the snow line, where a stream milky with melt-water splashed and where doves and linnets flew among the immense pines, lay a cave, half-hidden by the crag above and the stiff heavy leaves that clustered below. (The amber spyglass)

Quotations

Last words

So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky. (Northern lights)

Wikipedia in English

In the epic trilogy His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman unlocks the door to worlds parallel to our own. Dæmons and winged creatures live side by side with humans, and a mysterious entity called Dust just might have the power to unite the universes--if it isn't destroyed first. The three books in Pullman's heroic fantasy series, published as mass-market paperbacks with new covers, are united here in one boxed set that includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Join Lyra, Pantalaimon, Will, and the rest as they embark on the most breathtaking, heartbreaking adventure of their lives. The fate of the universe is in their hands. (Ages 13 and older)